The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2016 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on November 3, 2016, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Sometimes stories are a means of
survival.

Unhappy children often like to
pretend that their parents aren’t really their parents and that they secretly
belong to a royal family. Finley is not a member of a royal family, but she’s
staying with long-lost relatives for the summer, by a deep forest. Her mom and
dad are “having problems” and “need some space to work it out.” Her father refuses
to say why he stopped talking to his parents all those years ago, and clearly
both house and family are full of secrets. Finley does her best to adjust and
to get to know her relatives, and she begins writing fantasy stories about a
deep forest and an orphan girl and a queen. Finley has a secret of her own.
She’s living with depression and anxiety, and the stories she writes on paper
help her defend herself against the painful stories in her head. Legrand has
pulled off a difficult trick in this novel. She’s constructed a story-within-a-story
fairy tale that’s utterly compelling but sounds as though it was written by an 11-year-old
girl. Finley’s own story is even more compelling. Some of the family secrets
are telegraphed too far in advance to be shocking, and some of the dialogue is
too bluntly on-the-nose. But by the time the secrets are revealed, most readers
will be too caught up in the story to stop reading.

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